PP - F7 Trio Temple Exploration (Takneil, Hikoru)

[Calrex 0]

As their material gathering trip continued on Calrex continued to scan the area for any threats, but as they did the Ultramarine Knight noticed that the temples which were landmarks of the floor started coming into closer range, "Huh, guess we've really gone out far from the settlement if the Chanshi, Dharma, and Vinaya temples are close by."

Looking over at his teammates he gave a nod, "How do you guys feel about exploring one of the abandoned temples around here. Last time I came down here was when my and my teammate encountered a ghost, or in that case the remnants of another player's data after he was erased. We might find another interesting occurrence if we check another temple out."

Keeping his sword hand resting gently on the Grand Blade's handle the bluenette continued to survey the area, his face hidden by the emotionless expression of the Grand Chariot: Legacy's helmet.

[Takneil 0]

Letting out a yawn the boy stretched, being on the 7th floor was stunning to him at first. especially considering he had originally planned on gradually advancing through the floors rather than skipping five of them, but now it just seemed like a normal trip. feeling his body loosen up he sighed happily as he kicked over a rock in search of another Material but of course no such luck. Raising an arched brow at the man's comment he turned to look back, though as stated it seemed the settlement was far away now. "I guess we did go a bit fast didn't we?" 

His widening in horror Takneil turned around slowly to face the man. "Gh-ghost?, as in flying through walls sucking away our soul kind of ghost?" practically internally screaming in fear he knew that the man wouldn't joke about something so important. Swiping open his menu he quickly equipped his armor <<Eternal Melody>>, sending out a wave of freezing air the armor, black as night clasped around it's wearer. despite the Valor given appearance the armor gave the boy inside shook his head and crossed his arms. "Nope!"

[Hikoru 0]

Hikoru looked and he saw that they were farther than the town than he had origionally planned. In fact, they had come to a new place he had never seen before. They were as Cal said abandoned temples, and it gave him a smile. This was a new adventure, and he wanted to check these temples out. Tak on the other hand didn't seem to want to, and put on armor that he had never seen before, and they sent a chill up his spine. He shivered and moved away from him. He hated the cold, and this certainly didn't help him out.

"W-well I feel like it would be fun. Count me in!" He said with a slight shiver. The cold wasn't helping him feel better, so he made his way towards a sunnier area to warm up. As he stood there he saw the temples, and it took his breath away as he looked at the pure majesticness of them.

[Calrex 0]

Calrex took note of Takneil's reaction to his suggestion, equipping a rather sinister looking armor. It seemed black as night, but the thing that seemed to kill the entire feel when the young boy shook his head like he was a child being fed an unwanted helping of some disgusting concoction from his family's kitchen, "Don't worry Tak. Even though it's a technical ghost, it's still bound by the parameters within the game. Basically the remnants of a person's avatar seem to temporarily manifest as a 'monster'"

Looking at Hikoru it seemed the boy was more advert to being out in the cold night than inside a temple, counting him in. Looking back over at the now-armored Takneil the deep-sea blue armor clad player gave a nod, "Don't worry, even if we do encounter one it is still under the control of the Hate system. One Howl skill use from me and you guys won't have to worry about attacks."

[Takneil 0]

Taking a deep breath he gazed towards the temples, right they were in SAO. Mobs had to abide by the mechanics of the game just as the Players did, sighing he nodded. "Sorry, Ghosts aren't really my thing." he stated, the fear had been driven deep by certain events in the real world, but he would need to get over it. "Alright, I'll go." Blissfully ignorant of the armors effect on the air Takneil raised an arched brow in question as Hikoru departed from the two, what was up with that?. Shrugging he returned his gaze to the temples. "So...which one are we going into first?" he asked hoping that whatever they encountered inside he would be able to handle.

[Hikoru 0]

HIkoru sighed as his body warmed up slowly. The sun felt nice on his cold-touched skin. He breathed in and went over, feeling the chill from only feet away from Cal. He sighed inwardly and decided to deal with it, since he couldn't get away from it that easily. He heard Takneil ask about where they were started, and he saw the nearest temple, which seemed to be the oldest out of all of them. He pointed to it

"How about that one? It seems pretty interesting." He said, eyeing it over lightly. He decided to start to walk around, seeing if he could see any other temples. He was able to only see two in his field of vision, so that made three altogether. He went back to the group of his two friends "And there only seems to be two other temples, as far as I can see anyways." He said with a sigh.

[Calrex 0]

"Don't worry, that's understandable. At the least these ghosts can't seem to pull the creepy hi jinks that their real world counterparts are notorious for."

Giving a nod Calrex looked over to see that Hikoru had moved into a sunnier area. There were less and less of them in the area as the night passed on. Looking over at the temple Hikoru had pointed out Calrex activated his <<Reveal>> skill, scanning its area, "That's odd...actually these three temples aren't listed anywhere near the landmark ones of Chansi, Dharma, and Vinaya I'm familiar with. Of course, those are populated and used as personal training retreats for players, so it would make sense."

"Yeah, let's go check that one out."

Taking point Calrex began to descend down towards the entrance to the abandoned temple, making sure to keep a grip on his sword should any threats appear.

[Takneil 0]

Shaking his head as he gazed at the temples he fell behind Calrex. The boy could just use this a way to face his fears, after all he did get over the one he had of insects when he faced the Queen in <<Long live the queen>> quest a while back. Placing a thoughtful hand on his chin, or at least where it would be if not covered by the armor. 'Is there a quest with ghosts in it?' he mused. shrugging he focused on the matter at hand.

Nearly glaring at the temples ahead of him Takneil frowned, something was bothering him...as if he had forgotten something. snapping his finger he nodded. "There's going to be chests in these temples aren't there?" he asked the previous frightened tone replaced by excitement.

[Hikoru 0]

Hikoru followed Cal, hearing Takneil ask about treasure chests, and he nodded silently. There had to be treasure chests in these unexplored temples, they just had to find them. He turned to Takneil as he entered the doorway of the Temple.

"Well there has to be. Nobody's explored these temples, because there is no other path, and the doors are closed. Other players would have left them open." He said, smiling slightly. He then soon followed Calrex closely behind, making sure to stay with the armored player.

[Calrex 0]

"Well, we can only guess. Remember things aren't like they are in the real world, so there's the chance that these temples could reset after a player visits, meaning that any trace of their presence could have been removed, such as open doors. Nonetheless let's hope we find something of interest inside."

As his two companions followed behind Calrex gave a calming breath as they came to the base of one of the three, standing in front of the long flight of steps that led up to the entrance. Gripping his sword he looked upwards before beginning to traverse the ascent, looking left and right to make sure no ambushes or traps had triggered while moving.

[Takneil 0]

Nodding Takneil walked up the steps. "I agree with Cal, though I can't personally say I've encountered areas like that before but it seems likely Players would have at least walked up these steps before." looking for a entrance of sorts he chuckled. "Another thing we don't know is how far they may have gotten." Shrugging he noticed that the man had hold of his sword, letting his own hover above the hilt of <<Stinger Edge>> he turned to his Mentor. "Do we have anything to worry about?" he asked not wanting to get surprised by an enemy attack.

[Hikoru 0]

Hikoru nodded at the two, then pulled out his dagger, Dementia. He wasn't one to really hold it, but he knew that he could rely on these two for some protection, as they were both Tanks, and he was a decent DPS. He gave a small smile and continued forward, enjoying the dark and eery new scenery. It was more than likely a new area that some players hadn't explored yet. He breathed and continued forward behind Cal, with Tak close behind.

"I don't know, and i'm not sure if we will for awhile." He said to Tak. He knew that none of them knew what this chamber held for them, but the only way to find out was to keep moving forward, and seeing if there was anything in here for them to find

[Calrex 0]

As the trio made their way upwards Calrex continued to keep an eye out, but it seemed no traps were primed to be sprung as they kept ascending, "Something doesn't seem right. The fact that we haven't encountered anything so far...seems worse than having already encountered some form of obstacle."

"Keep your eyes peeled. Something definitely doesn't seem to add up. I would think that by now we should have been attacked by something."

Keeping his hand gripped on his sword the bluenette looked as they reached the top of the staircase, seeing the entrance to the temple ahead, "Alright...let's head on in."

[Takneil 0]

Taking a deep breath as he inspected the creepy, dark, most likely bug infested temple the boy swallowed his fear and took the first step into the ancient building. "Hik, bud. All I can imagine is a giant spiked log swinging down from the ceiling to instantly kill me right now, while that may not happen I don't exactly imagine the pit of cute adorable kittens to be an option to hope for." doing his best to maintain his normal self intact he sighed and shrugged from the comment. "Then again we are on the internet, I'm honestly surprised we haven't had a barrage of ads to obscure our vision." moving deeper so he was engulfed by the dark Takneil tried to make out his surroundings, but of course to no avail. 

Letting out an annoyed sigh. "Cal, need your eyes" he stated to his mentor. "Be careful though, can't even see my own healthbar in here it's so dark." he exaggerated, but made his point. waiting a few moments he shrugged. "no bugs!...yet!" 

[Hikoru 0]

Hikoru listened and held back a slight chuckle. He couldn't believe that his friend was having such troublesome thoughts about this temple, when he felt completely fine about it. He just sighed and laughed as he stayed close to the two armored players, wanting to be careful and not run into a creature that could hurt him. He heard his friend complain about seeing no bugs, and it took every ounce of willpower to stop him from scuttling his fingers over his friends shoulder to scare him. He turned to Cal to ignore these urges and continued forward

"Well there's no need to be scared. You have two strong players here to protect you Tak, so there's nothing to worry about." He said with a laugh. He breathed and looked around, when he suddenly felt a chill down his back. He went rigid and breathed silently "Uh.... Tak, did you just breathe down my neck?..." He asked as he tried to calm himself. No, there wasn't anything here, so it was probably just his armor, or his losing a bit of sanity in the dark.

[Calrex 0]

OOC: Now to start tracking down the ghost!

ID: 48934
Loot Dice: 14 (Search and Detect +2 / Item +1) = 17 (Ghost Found / Chased Further into Temple)

"Uh.... Tak, did you just breathe down my neck?...

Upon hearing Hikoru speak Calrex turned his head so that he could see the young man out of the corner of his eye. As he did his eyes widened as he ripped the Grand Blade from its sheath as he rushed at the incorporeal creature that was standing behind them, slashing at it with his sword shining golden from the <<Meteor Break>> Sword Art.

Unfortunately, it seemed the creature was intangible as it phased through the opening attack, vanishing into the walls of the temple with a light-hearted laugh.

Giving a small sigh the bluenette resheathed his sword, "Well, looks like our suspicions were right. Although I don't know if it's an actual ghost of a player or some randomly generated AI creature. In either case we'd best keep our guard up."

Environmental Encounter:
The ghost is elusive! Each post the player makes a roll for LD. On rolls of 15 or higher they successfully detect the ghost, forcing it to run further into the temple. If failed, then the roll goes to the next person. If all three players fail to detect the ghost it successfully spooks them, taking off 5 Energy.

Edited February 22, 2016 by Calrex

[Takneil 0]

"Please don't flatter yourself, I know we're friends but we're not that close." shaking his head he turned to face his friend 

ID# 49110 results: Battle: 10 Craft: 9 Loot: 4 MOB: 5

with widened eyes the boy swiftly drew <<stinger's Edge>>, "CAL, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" he roared mistaking the man's actions for a threat. Why would he of all people attack his friend?. Stepping forward quickly was when he only saw what looked like a shimmer in the air followed by a sword, his mentor's sword. 

feeling a pit of guilt in his stomach Takneil sighed. "Sorry, I should have known you wouldn't have done something like that..." Shaking his head to try and wrap around what was happening he looked to the man. "so that was a ghost?, I would have hoped it would have been easier to see" he mumbled under his breath. "let's find this thing as soon as possible, I have a sword to force feed it"

Edited February 24, 2016 by Takneil

[Hikoru 0]

Hikoru jumped as soon, Calrex has pulled out his sword and threw it towards him. he scream and ducked, seeing in the corner of his eye something that made his skin crawl, a ghost. He shuddered and stood up slowly, his whole body shaking. He hadn't been scared in a long time, but this was the scariest moment he had ever had in SAO. He saw his adventures in this game flash before his eyes, and he leaned on the wall, trying to catch his best he could.

"T-t-that was a g-ghost???" he said with a shaky voice. He looked around, and he saw the ghost dissapear from behind him. He screamed and pointed at it "THERE IT IS!!!" He said, falling to the ground. The ghost seemed to notice, then went around the corner, out of his field of vision. He wimpered. He had always hated ghosts and ghost stories, and he couldn't stand the sight of them

ID: 49431

LD: 16+2= 18 GHOST SEEN

Edited February 27, 2016 by Hikoru

[Calrex 0]

ID: 49436
Loot Dice: 16 (Search and Detect +2 / Item +1) = 19 (Ghost Detected)

"Like I said, it's either a remnant of a player's avatar data that was killed, or it could be a computer generated monster. Right now I can't really tell right now. We'll need to pursue it."

As Hikoru pointed out the creature once again Calrex whirled over to see the creature round yet another corner, "I think this thing is messing with us. Keep an eye out, there might be traps it's trying to lead us into."

Keeping the Grand Blade II trained in the direction of the poltergeist's trail the bluenette gave a calming breath, moving at a steady pace, "Just what does this thing have planned?"

Edited February 27, 2016 by Calrex

[Takneil 0]

Staying close to Hikoru and Calrex the boy looked for his target, he knew they were chasing it but he could hardly see a thing. "Not going to be so easy, I can just barely see you two..." he stated trying not to stumble over chunks of rock or run face first into a wall at a sharp turn. Realizing that this was a ghost Takneil opened his menu and switched out his shield for bracer, this way if it attacked him he could deal damage right back at it. 

ID# 49466 results: Battle: 1 Craft: 1 Loot: 20 (Ghost seen) MOB: 1

looking up from his screen the boy's eye widened. "Guy's it's right there!" he yelled as he took off in pursuit after it. "Get back here you ethereal trash!, time to take your daily dose of Tak!"  

Edited February 27, 2016 by Takneil